As the competition enters into its sixth day, eight teams representing six countries have pushed through to the quarter-finals of the 11th edition of the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition.

The announcement was held this morning at International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Global Headquarters in Paris after more than a hundred vibrant and intense mediation sessions. The Clifford Chance Preliminary Rounds involved an international group of 226 law and business students whose talents reflected throughout the initial rounds.

The eight qualifying teams include: Sao Paulo Law School of Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil), Universita degli Studi di Milano (Italy), University of New South Wales (Australia), University of Auckland (New Zealand), Monash University (Australia), University of Ottawa – Faculty of Law (Canada), Pepperdine University (United States) and Cornell Law School (United States).

“The last round was my best that I have competed in so far. University of Bucharest (Romania) was a tough competitor and the difficulty keeps getting harder and harder as we go along. Everyone is learning very quickly and are at the top of their game,” said team member Andrew Yan Feng Lee of University of Auckland.

“The best thing about moving on is that the team gets to continue learning and improving. Their skills have been incredibly elevated because of the wonderful competition they have been facing,” said Monash University coach, Peter Singer.

To ensure the Competition continues to be one of the world’s leading mediation capacity-building events, the bar is raised ever year. Students apply ICC’s latest Rules of Mediation, which were brought into effect on 1 January 2014, to resolve multi-layered international disputes with legal, commercial and ethical complications. All scenarios are based on real events and are specially created by a working group of international mediation experts.

The last round was my best that I have competed in so far. University of Bucharest (Romania) was a tough competitor and the difficulty keeps getting harder and harder as we go along. Everyone is learning very quickly and are at the top of their game.

Andrea Carlevaris, Director of ICC’s Dispute Resolution Services and Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, said: “Our hope with this event is to inspire a new generation of users and further bolster the process of mediation as a reliable and cost-effective form of dispute resolution. We, of course, thank the many professionals who impart their wealth of knowledge and experience to the students proving that mediation is a successful tool that can be used to facilitate constructive communications.”

Following the conclusion of the quarter-finals, four teams will advance to compete in the semifinals taking place tomorrow morning and hosted by the global law firm, Eversheds. The dispute to be mediated is an international rare diamond sale gone wrong. The two top-ranked teams advancing from the semi-finals will then move on to the KMPG sponsored final round taking place tomorrow afternoon. The mediation final will play out over a dispute between a world-renowned pastry chef and an exclusive caterer to the stars with a disastrous icing incident. This problem will determine the winning team of 2016 ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition.

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